Novi Pazar

For the town in Bulgaria see Novi Pazar, Bulgaria.

Novi Pazar Нови Пазар
—  City  —
Coat of arms
Location of the municipality of Novi Pazar within Serbia
Coordinates: 43°09′N 20°31′E
Country	Serbia
District	Raška
Settlements	99
Government
• Mayor	Meho Mahmutović (SDP)
Area
• Municipality	742 km2 (286 sq mi)
Population (2011 census)
• Town	60,638
• Municipality	92,776
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	36300
Area code	+381 20
Car plates	NP
Website	www.novipazar.rs

Novi Pazar (Serbian Cyrillic: Нови Пазар, pronounced [nɔ̂v̞iː pǎzaːr], Turkish: Yeni Pazar) is a city and municipality located in southwest Serbia, in the Raška District. According to the 2011 census, municipality population was 92,776, while the city itself had a population of 60,638. Novi Pazar is the cultural center of Bosniaks in Serbia, and the biggest city of the Sandžak-region.

Name

Novi Pazar is a direct translation of the city's previous Ottoman Turkish name Yeni Pazar (meaning "New Market"), which in turn was derived from medieval Trgovište, meaning "marketplace" in Serbian.

Geography

River Raška

Novi Pazar is the main economic and cultural centre of the Sandžak region (followed by Bijelo Polje in Montenegro). It is located in the valleys of the Jošanica, Raška (river), Deževska, and Ljudska rivers at the elevation of 496m. The city is surrounded by Golija and Rogozna mountains, as well as the Pešter plateau. The total area of the municipality is 742 km². It contains over 100 settlements, mostly small and spread over hills and mountains surrounding the city. After the city, the largest village is Mur, with over 3000 residents.

List of villages in the municipality: Alulović, Bajevica, Banja, Bare, Batnjik, Bekova, Bele Vode, Boturovina, Brđani, Brestovo, Vever, Vidovo, Vitkoviće, Vojkoviće, Vojniće, Vranovina, Vučiniće, Vučja Lokva, Golice, Gornja Tušimlja, Goševo, Građanoviće, Gračane, Grubetiće, Deževa, Dojinoviće, Drum, Dolac, Doljani, Dragočevo, Dramiće, Žunjeviće, Zabrđe, Zlatare, Ivanča, Izbice, Jablanica, Javor, Janča, Jova, Kašalj, Kovačevo, Kožlje, Koprivnica, Kosuriće, Kruševo, Kuzmičevo, Leča, Lopužnje, Lukare, Lukarsko, Goševo, Lukocrevo, Miščiće, Mur, Muhovo, Negotinac, Odojeviće, Okose, Osaonica, Osoje, Oholje, Pavlje, Paralovo, Pasji Potok, Pilareta, Pobrđe, Požega, Požežina, Polokce, Pope, Postenje, Prćenova, Pusta Tušimlja, Pustovlah, Radaljica, Rajetiće, Rajkoviće, Rajčinoviće, Rajčinovićka Trnava, Rakovac, Rast, Sebečevo, Sitniče, Skukovo, Slatina, Smilov Laz, Srednja Tušimlja, Stradovo, Sudsko Selo, Tenkovo, Trnava, Tunovo, Hotkovo, Cokoviće, Čašić Dolac, Šavci, Šaronje, Štitare and Zaguljača.

History

Altun-Alem mosque

The medieval capital of Serbia, Ras (ca. 880-960), existed within the borders of modern Novi Pazar. The archaeological complex is situated in Postenj, 2 km north from the city. The Church of St. Apostles Peter and Paul, the oldest church building in Serbia, was founded in the 4th century, at the top of a hill within the medieval city (known as Arsa in Byzantine Greek). The first Serbian bishopric, the Eparchy of Ras, was founded by 871 after the Christianization of Serbs during the rule of Prince Mutimir. In 1427, the remnant of Ras (known as Trgovište) was held by Serbian despot Đurađ Branković (r. 1427-1456); one of the markets was called "despotov trg". The region falls into the hands of the Ottoman Empire in 1439, but is retaken by the Serbs in 1444. In the summer of 1455, the Ottomans took Trgovište, which name they translated into Turkish, calling it Eski Bazar (Old Market). It was the seat of the Ras Vilayet until its disestablishment in 1463 following the Ottoman conquest of Bosnia, then it became part of the Jeleč Vilayet.

Novi Pazar was formally founded as a city in its own right in 1461 by Isa-Beg Isaković, who was also the founder of the city of Sarajevo. The first written document which mention Novi Pazar dates back to the 15th century, and describes the decision of Ragusan Council to appoint a consul in this town. That reinforces the idea that the town was already developed back then, thanks to its outstanding geographic position, as it was at the intersection of important roads leading to Dubrovnik, Niš, Sofia, Constantinople, Salonica, Sarajevo, Belgrade, and Budapest. Many authors wrote about Novi Pazar and Evliya Celebi noted that it was one of the biggest towns in the Balkans in the 17th century.

The city was the capital of the Ottoman Sanjak of Novi Pazar that existed between the 15th and the 20th century. Nikola Bošković (1642–1721), the father of the famous Ragusan scientist Ruđer Bošković (1711–1787), migrated to Novi Pazar, where he spent the last years of his life.

The name Novi Pazar (then Novibazar) entered the world encyclopedias as a synonym for the Sandžak region in 1878, the year when the Congress of Berlin designated the entire region as "corpus separatum" named Sanjak of Novi Pazar. The Sanjak of Novi Pazar was occupied and administered by Austria-Hungary from 1878 to 1908. In 1908 it was returned to the Ottoman Empire, which ruled this territory until it was lost to Serbia in 1912 during the First Balkan War. After World War I, the town of Novi Pazar rapidly lost its importance.

Demographics

In the 1953 census, most of the Turks and Yugoslavs were Bosniaks. On the following several censuses, the term "Muslim by nationality" was offered by the authorities; option for Bosniak as an ethnicity appeared only in the 2002 census.

Municipality Data

Ethnic composition by census
Year	Serbs	%	Muslims	%	Yugoslavs	%	Montenegrins	%	Total
1953		50.38%	(Turks)	21.87%		26.94%	(Others)	0.83%	53,331
1961	27,933	47.52%	23,250	39.56%	1,261	2.15%	543	.%	58,777
1971	25,076	38.98%	37,140	57.74%	183	0.28%	359	.%	64,326
1981	21,834	29.51%	49,769	67.26%	931	.%	295	.%	74,000
1991	19,064	22.36%	64,251	75.37%	700	0.82%	232	.%	85,249
2002	17,599	20.46%	65,593	76.27%	1,599	1.86%	136	0.16%	85,996

Urban area data

Ethnic composition by census
Year	Serbs	%	Muslims	%	Yugoslavs	%	Montenegrins	%	Total
1971	5,322	17.54%	24,544	80.9%	167	0.55%	298	0.98%	28,950
1981	6,689	16.28%	32,798	79.8%	848	2.06%	246	0.6%	41,099
1991	6,698	12.94%	43,774	84.59%	575	1.11%	190	0.37%	51,749
2002	6,724	12.31%	46,339	84.86%	904	1.66%	105	0.19%	54,604

According to the data of Red Cross and NGOs, the city hosts about 6,000 Serb refugees from Kosovo, Bosnia, and Croatia.^{[citation needed]}

Politics

After the last Serbian local election held in May 2008, the local assembly seats are distributed as following:

• Sandžak Democratic Party (23)
• Party of Democratic Action (18)
• Serbian list (6)

Mayor of the city is Meho Mahmutović of the Sandžak Democratic Party.

Economy

Lying on crossroads between numerous old and new states, Novi Pazar has always been a strong trade center. Along with the trade, the city developed manufacturing tradition. During the 20th century, it became a center of textile industry.

Paradoxically, during the turbulent 1990s and, Novi Pazar prospered, even during the UN sanctions, boosted by the strong private initiative in textile industry. Jeans of Novi Pazar, first of forged trademarks, and later on its own labels, became famous throughout the region. However, during the relative economic prosperity in Serbia of 2000s, the Novi Pazar economy collapsed, with demise of large textile combines in mismanaged privatization, and incoming competition from the import.

Culture

Church of St. Peter from the 9th century

Faculty for Islamic studies in Novi Pazar

The old Serb Orthodox monastery of Sopoćani, the foundation of St. King Uroš I, built in the second half of the 13th century and located west of Novi Pazar, is a World Heritage Site since 1979 accompanying with Stari Ras (Old Ras), a medieval capital of the Serbian great župan Stefan Nemanja.

The city also houses an old church from the 9th century Church of St. Peter. On a hilltop overlooking Novi Pazar is the 12th century monastery of Đurđevi stupovi, long left in ruin, but recently restored and with a monastic community using it, with plate glass to keep out the weather and preserve the fine frescos. The main mosque of the city, the Altun-Alem mosque, is the largest in this region of the Balkans and dates from 16th century. There are various other historic Ottoman buildings, such as the 17th century Amir-agin Han, a 15th century Hammam, and the 15th century Turkish fortress (all gone but the walls, the site of which is now a walled park in the city centre).

Education

Novi Pazar is home to two universities, the University of Novi Pazar and the State University of Novi Pazar.

Sport

The city's football club FK Novi Pazar was founded in 1928, under the name "FK Sandžak", which later changed to "FK Deževa". The club has played under its current name since 1962, when Deževa and another local football club, FK Ras, unified under this name. The club was a SFRJ amateur champion, and a member of the Yugoslav Second League. FK Novi Pazar qualified for a promotional play-off twice, but lost both times (to FK Sutjeska Nikšić in 1994, and to FK Sloboda Užice in 1995). FK Novi Pazar is the oldest second-league team in Serbia. Football is still extremely popular sport in Novi Pazar and city stadium is always full (third most popular football club in Serbia after Red Star and Partizan). The President of FK Novi Pazar is Rasim Ljajic, a minister in the government of the Republic of Serbia.

Volleyball clubs in the city are OK Novi Pazar (second league) and OK Koteks.

Handball club is in second league and used to have name "Ras" but it was changed in RK Novi Pazar in 2004.

Famous athletes from the city include Mirsad Turkcan, Turkish basketball national team player, Sead Halilagic, former football player of Besiktas, handball-player Mirsad Terzić (who represents Bosnia-Herzegovina) and young football players Adem Ljajić (represents Serbia) Edis Bahtijarević (represented Turkey previously, now Bosnia-Herzegovina), and alpinist Basar Čarovac who climbed all seven continents' highest peaks.

Notable citizens

• Rasim Ljajić, Republic Minister for Social Care
• Sulejman Ugljanin, Republic Minister without portfolio
• Milorad Veljović, Director of Serbian Police
• Bajro Župić, former FK Partizan football player
• Basar Čarovac, alpinist
• Adem Ljajić, AC Fiorentina football player
• Emina Jahović, pop singer
• Mirsad Türkcan, Turkish basketball player
• Almir Gegić, football player
• Elma Sinanović, pop singer
• Saffet Sancaklı, football player

External links

• Official website of Novi Pazar
• Tourist organization of Novi Pazar
• Novi Pazar: The oriental gem
• Open Forum - Novi Pazar